Review : Ulead DVD PictureShow 2.0

Ulead has been a long standing name in the Image and Video processing market. Started in Taiwan a long time a go ( 1989 ) their primary focus is on image and video processing software. The latest versions of their products now also include DVD creation tools. Ulead tends to make overall well designed tools that are easy to use yet don't cut back on possibilities. They have a lot to offer for both beginners ( ease of use ) to pro's ( nearly limitless creation capabilities ).

The latest in their wide line of products called DVD PictureShow ( 49.95$ with Ulead Photo Explorer) allows you to make Photo VCD or DVD's. The tools is setup as one big wizard that walks you trough the entire process. You can jump back and forward any given time without losing your settings. This makes it easy to get started and produces a result in no time. It took me about 15 minutes to have my first result , and most time was spent deciding which of the, plenty ,templates to use. The tool supports most common CD writers and DVD writers directly. As a last treat you can also reuse slide show you already created using other Ulead tools such as Photo Explorer.

You can download a demo version on Ulead site.

Installation
Creating a project
Building the slideshows
Selecting the menu style
Previewing your project
Project Output
Wrap it up!
Printing menu
Conclusion

1.Installation

The installation is flawless on both Win98, ME and 2000.( I Didn't test on XP yet, but it don't expect problems there either ). During installation the program asks you for the country you are located in. This is used to set the default video standard ( PAL or NTSC), you can override on this page if necessary. During project creation you have the possibility to change this by hitting <F6> at any time. When installation is complete it will ask to reboot the machine. You can do this at a later time if this is more convenient. However the reboot is necessary. Most programs just ask you to boot but will run fine without , well not this one. Apparently some of the components only get registered during the boot.

2. Creating a project

Upon program launch you are asked if you want to build a VCD, SVCD or DVD.

The VCD mode allows you to create up to 99 slide shows with up to 99 image per slide show. However the total number of images is limited to 1900 or amount of available space , whichever comes first. Typically music tends to consume a lot of space. In DVD mode the 1900 image limitation goes away and you can have 99 shows with 99 pictures each giving you theoretically a 9801 pictures capability.

3. Building the slide shows

The logical next step is of course to build the slide shows. In this version 2, you can also add videos, and mix videos and slideshows in the same project. Batch collect option let you grab automaticcaly all slides found in a directory or a hard disk.

Just hit the Add slide show button to create one. This opens a new windows where you can select your images. The first image you select becomes the image shown in the menu screen. Any subsequent images are embedded in the slide show itself, without omitting the first picture To edit an existing slideshow just hit the Edit Slideshow button.

This step is quite different compared to the oldest versions. The use is very easy. You can browse your directories, select photographs, rotate them if necessary, and a lot of new fonctions are displayed on the left part of the screen. Here you can see the setups displayed when you click on the Photo Options Button :

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